Pete Ortiz shows off his dough-tossing skills while making pizzas during the dinner shift at Dion's last month. In ·è¿ÍÖ±²¥ Fe, teens account for 78% of the restaurant's 111-member team.
Teenagers Pete Ortiz, left, and Deandra Ortiz work with assistant manager Aalizay Lopez, center, on the line making pizzas during the dinner shift at Dion’s last month.
After years in which teens dropped out of the workforce in droves, many younger members of Gen Z are finding their way back to paying jobs that fit their social, academic and extracurricular lifestyle, and a New Mexico-based pizza chain is welcoming them on their terms.
Dion’s — an Albuquerque-based pizza chain with locations in New Mexico, Colorado and Texas — embraces young people in its workforce and aims to make their work experience a fruitful one.
Workforce participation by teens declined dramatically during the millennial generation before beginning the current rebound — which still hasn’t reached the levels of previous generations, Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows.
Today, restaurants employ 11.6 million people in the United States, and nearly 30% of these employees are under 20, according to the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration. By comparison, teens between 15 and 19 now make up 72% of the total workforce at Dion’s, according to Deena Crawley, the company’s chief of staff. In ·è¿ÍÖ±²¥ Fe, that number is even higher, with 87 teens accounting for 78% of the restaurant’s 111-member ·è¿ÍÖ±²¥ Fe team. These young employees are cross-trained to do a little bit of everything, Crawley said, including answering phones, cleaning the dining room, keeping the kitchen organized and serving food. Eventually, employees learn to make the pizzas, salads and subs, as well as manage the register and drive-thru.
“While it’s fast paced, it’s also fun, and you really get to work alongside people that become great friends and mentors. Our young people really look forward to coming to work. It’s not to say that it’s necessarily easy, but it’s challenging and they look forward to it,†Crawley said.
But flexible work schedules are what really make Dion’s so Gen Z-friendly: The company believes in working around young employees’ other commitments.
“We love to hire active employees. … We find that they make really great employees, so we’re really happy to work with their schedule. Some employees come to us, and they want to work many, many hours, and other employees are like, ‘Hey, I just want to work on Sundays right now, and then I’ll come back after my sports season is done, and then I want to work a little more.’ â€
Dion’s’ focus on young employees was not intentional at first, but some early observations from the owners eventually evolved into a philosophy of fostering youth development in the communities Dion’s serves.
“Our owners saw how much they grew, how much customers really liked interacting with them and how those employees took those skills later on in life. So they just said, ‘Hey, we’re really on to something here,’ †Crawley said.
One of the teens you could encounter at a Dion’s drive-thru or cash register is Serenity Mendez, a 16-year-old junior at ·è¿ÍÖ±²¥ Fe High School. Mendez, who started working at Dion’s at the end of her freshman year in 2023, said she wanted to work so she could start on the right path to pursuing her future goals.
Mendez said it was initially a bit of an adjustment going to school, participating in choir and working, “but it’s really easy when you get the hang of it.†She said she has maintained good grades, just graduated to the final steps of her training, enjoys interacting with people at the drive-thru and register, loves the people she works with and recommends working at Dion’s to all of her friends, especially freshmen seeking a first-time job like she did.
When she was 16, Aalizay Lopez worked at another now-closed ·è¿ÍÖ±²¥ Fe pizza shop. She joined Dion’s staff in March 2023 and noticed the experience was a bit different.
“Dion’s has been so much nicer than anywhere else I’ve worked. I feel like other companies that I’ve worked for prioritize results or numbers or the way that they look more than they prioritize the people that work for them,†Lopez said. “Dion’s is really here to kind of guide you the entire way, versus other places I’ve worked, where they kind of give you a manual or make you watch some videos, and then they’re like, ‘All right, get out there.’ â€
Lopez added the chain’s community-based culture makes it easy to find resources and made her feel comfortable asking for help, compared to places she has worked where seeking help was an intimidating process.
Advancement is possible too, said Lopez, 23, who has worked her way up to assistant manager.
“At other places, when you hear about opportunities, it never seems likely, like it’s not something that’s realistic. You feel like there’s always a catch there,†Lopez said. “At Dion’s, I’ve been able to climb the ladder relatively quickly, and it shows that anything is truly possible here, that they don’t set weird restrictions.â€
Crawley said it’s much more common to hire teens, keep them for a short period, and send them off with skills that will help them in future jobs and careers — skills like completing multiple new tasks with confidence, becoming a better advocate, managing time and money, and engaging with coworkers and customers.
“One of the things I hear most often is how we train them to engage with each other and with customers, and how helpful that is for them in the job and then beyond,†said Crawley, who added that these social skills were particularly sought after and valued by Dion’s newbies and alumni after the COVID pandemic.
Lopez added, “It feels like a lot of jobs condition you to be fit for just that job, and at Dion’s, it feels like they condition you to be ready for life.â€